Scholarly v. Popular
- Anatomy of a Scholarly ArticleInteractive display of the key elements of a scholarly journal article.
- Here is a short video explaining PEER REVIEW.
Breaking Down Academic Articles
Finding Academic Articles
These are general databases that are useful for English Composition papers. They contain articles in scholarly journals, newspapers, and popular publications.
If you want to look for others, go to this page to browse databases by subject. Click through to your discipline (political science, sociology, history, etc.). Here you will find a selection of the most useful databases for each discipline listed.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text back issues of core scholarly journals, browsable and searchable across multiple disciplines. Coverage starts with first issue, with moving wall for most recent 3-5 years. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books only. JSTOR also includes primary source collections, including images from Artstor.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowHistorical and current material for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases, including International Index to Black Periodicals, Black Literature Index and Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience (interdisciplinary essays written by leading scholars on the Black Experience).
- Chicano Database This link opens in a new windowBibliographic materials on Mexican-American topics 1967 to the present. Scope expanded in 1992 to include the broader Latinx experience, including Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants. Includes the Spanish Speaking Mental Health Database.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of most disciplines. Indexes major journals with all cited references captured. Combines the following citation databases: Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowComprehensive business articles database covering more than 8,500 scholarly, professional, and trade periodicals in all areas of business. Coverages dates back to 1886. Content also includes books, case studies, Datamonitor company and industry profiles, conference proceedings, country reports (from CountryWatch, EIU, Icon International, and others), market research reports, SWOT analyses, profiles of the most-cited authors, and more. Sole electronic resource for full text of the Harvard Business Review and California Management Review.
- UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
UC Library Search is the unified discovery and borrowing system for all 10 UC Campuses. Select the UCLA Library Catalog scope to search holdings of materials owned by the UCLA Library and other UCLA collections, whether online or in print. Does not contain full-text articles or article citations. Select the Articles, books and more scope to search for materials in all 10 UC campuses. More information in this guide.
Article Search Tips
This quick introduction to searching for academic journal articles in databases will help you make your searches more efficient and more effective:
Avoiding plagiarism can be more tricky than it seems at first glance. Complete this activity to learn strategies for avoiding plagiarism.
Few of us can recall every detail and argument from academic articles - they’re packed with so much information! It’s best to create reading strategies that help you focus on comprehending the most essential elements of an academic article. Breaking Down Academic Articles is a webcomic tutorial that walks you through the most important aspects of an academic article, to help you prepare for class discussion on the article(s) or take away essential information from the article to support future research.
Note: a transcript for each slide can be located at the bottom of each slide. Click the button to preview transcript of slide for description of art in each panel and the script of tutorial guide.
Looking for an efficient way to get a research overview on a topic? A review article is a great place to start.
A review article provides an analysis of the state of research on a set of related research questions. Review articles often: summarize key research findings, reference must-read articles, describe current areas of agreement as well as controversies and debates, point out gaps in knowledge and unanswered questions, suggest directions for future research.
Check out this quick overview of finding review articles in Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, and more.
The Library's online subscription resources can always be accessed from computers and wireless networks on campus. However, off-campus access is restricted to current UCLA, students, faculty, and staff who have set up their computer using one of the following methods.
VPN on Mac with Natalie
"I chose VPN for my mac because I need to be able to access the full text of articles on different browsers." - Natalie, Environmental ScienceDownload a UCLA VPN
VPN on Windows with Michael
"I chose VPN because I like the security it provides and the control it gives me as a user to manually enable or disable it when I'm browsing online." - Michael, Public AffairsDownload a UCLA VPN
Additional Platforms
For more information:
- UCLA OnLine Proxy ServerA simple browser setting which will automatically divert you to a UCLA logon page when you first access a restricted site.
- Virtual Private Networking (VPN)A program you can download and install, or use the built-in version on many computers or mobile devices. VPN software must be logged on manually before you access a restricted site, but works for all programs on your computer.
Navigating UC Library Search
- UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
UC Library Search is the unified discovery and borrowing system for all 10 UC Campuses. Select the UCLA Library Catalog scope to search holdings of materials owned by the UCLA Library and other UCLA collections, whether online or in print. Does not contain full-text articles or article citations. Select the Articles, books and more scope to search for materials in all 10 UC campuses. More information in this guide.